If Enda Can Lie to a Girl of 14, How Can Any of Us Trust Him?

THE family of a 14-year-old girl with a severe disability have lashed Enda Kenny for promising the teenager there would be no cuts during his February campaign trail.

Joanne O'Riordan, 15, from Millstreet in Cork, suffers total amelia, a rare condition which meant she was born with no limbs.

Miss O'Riordan asked the Taoiseach in February, during his campaign in Cork, if he would be making cuts to the Disability Allowance and was told in no uncertain terms by Mr Kenny, that this would not happen.

Her brother Stephen O'Riordan, 27, broke down on Today With Pat Kenny show on RTE radio yesterday when he 'He has gone and reneged on it' talked of the 'betrayal and lies' fed by Mr Kenny to his young sister.

He told the Irish Daily Mail after the show: 'Enda Kenny made this promise to Joanne and he has gone back and reneged on it.

'If he can lie to a then 14-yearold girl, how can we as a country trust him?' Mr O'Riordan said his sister had been 'looking forward' to a more 'independent' life, which would have been made possible by having her own income through the Disability Allowance next year.

'This money would have also allowed Joanne to go on to further education. She is an intelligent girl and we as her family, want her to have her own life. But Enda Kenny clearly sees a person with a disability as not being equal to everyone else in society. …

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